What do you get when one man sets out to build the best Mustang in the country? This one, obviously…Words and Pics by hoskingindustries.com.au

It’s not often you hear of someone jumping into the world of modified cars at the very deepest of deep ends. We’re talking zero to sixty in an instant here. Two years ago, Wasyl decided he wanted to build a Mustang, and while his initial intention wasn’t to build ‘the best’ of anything, for anyone who got to see this 1967 Fastback up close at the 2013 MotorEx can attest, that’s certainly what happened. Incredibly, it’s his first custom car.

Built over a short two-year period between Melbourne and Wasyl’s home town of Sydney, this lucky Mustang has been the subject of more than 9000 hours of intensive labour and incredible detail. From its flawlessly smooth fibreglass nose to its bespoke steel rear valance, nary a square centimetre was left untouched in the process of turning the donor car into what it is today.

“It was actually a very clean car to start with,” Wasyl says. “But we ended up tearing it right down to its core anyway. Every panel is new, including the rear quarters.”

Besides meaning that the car would have brand new, baby-arse smooth panels once finished, getting physical access to the innards of the car made it easier when it was decided early on to make those razor-sharp side vents functional, acting as ducting for the rear brakes. Up front, it also made it easier to create the gorgeous symmetry the engine bay displays today, with super smooth panels surrounding the 427ci, nitrous-fed monster bolted to the custom chassis rails.

Wasyl says the big-cube powerhouse started as a Ford Racing crate motor, purchased on advice he was given that suggested it would make things easier – and cheaper. However, by the time the car was complete the only thing left of the original crate engine was the block!

With the 427 now far more stout than before thanks to parts from the Scat and ARP catalogues, it was decided to add some nitrous (you can’t have a Mustang inspired by Eleanor without gas, can you?). Wasyl says he can’t wait to activate the nitrous switch on the dash and feel the push in the back from the 200hp direct-port system plumbed into the Edelbrock Super Victor manifold.

This combo is backed by a bullet-proof drive train consisting of a Tremec T56 Magnum 6-speed ‘box and braced sheet metal 9in held in place by a 4-link rear and reinforced mounting points all ’round. One thing this car will never have any trouble with is structural integrity. Both the chassis and floor pans boast additional stiffening and the engine bay hides up to three layers of steel, particularly around the strut towers. While Wasyl and his builder Goren was at it, the rear end was minitubbed to the rails to accommodate those massive 18x13in billet rims and 335-wide Pirellis.

Inside, that same Shelby GT500/Eleanor hybrid style continues, and Wasyl is keen to point out that this was never meant to be a straight Eleanor clone. “Direction on this project changed a million times,” he says. “Small items of the build were constantly changing, but the core design stayed the same.”

The interior is a good example, where things started as a classic restomod re-trim only to bloom into a full-blown if not subtle reinterpretation of the original cars. From first glances, it would be easy to assume this was just an out-of-the-box job using repro parts. Look closer and you’ll realise that there is a lot more going on, with some parts modified and recovered up to three times to get the right look and feel. Those leather-clad seats are heated and the carbon inserts are custom.

A comparatively brief two-year build may seem short for such an extensive project, but when you’ve got someone working on the car up to seven days a week totalling some 9000 man hours, it makes more sense. Yet, Wasyl still says that waiting was probably the hardest part of the build. “Managing a construction company interstate doesn’t leave much time to play with toys like this one,” he says. “But where there’s a passion there’s a way. Having people working on it full time, managing it after a day’s work, giving my direction/vision partly to de-stress from the construction industry and its challenges was the norm for two years.”

“People say it’s not the destination but the journey. This was definitely not the bloody case here. I’m really happy it is finished.”

If that was the hardest part of the project, he knows immediately what the best part of the build was. “Showing it to my family for the first time at MotorEx 2013, for sure,” he says. “We finished it at midnight the night before, literally loading it onto the trailer at Andy’s and waking up in the morning in disbelief that it was actually finished. The highlight was definitely seeing my sons smile when they saw their names on the NOS bottles.”

Show life isn’t over for the ’67 just yet, with Wasyl planning a few more shows before letting the car settle into life as a family cruiser. A quick look underneath the car will show you that this was planned all along – everything from the firewall back coated in a generous layer of stone guard.

What then? Be prepared to see a ’50 mercury sled in matt black with hot rod pin striping hitting car shows around the country within the next handful of years!

Our photo shoot and feature story on Wasyl’s incredible elite-level ‘Eleanor’-inspired Mustang is out now in the latest Street Fords. Despite being Wasyl’s first modified car project, the car features insane levels of detail at all corners, much of it that kind of subtle detail that you don’t notice at first. This is no mere ‘Eleanor’ clone. be sure to read all about it in the new issue of Street Fords.

We almost fell over when we first saw the cover of issue 16 of Gasoline magazine carrying two of our photo shoots on the front. One of those was this incredible ‘Eleanor’-Inspired Mustang Fastback that was unveiled at the 2013 MotorEx back in July.

The subject of an intensive two-year rebuild that saw the car worked on almost 24/7, there’s very little of the original car left besides some of the core beneath. And watch those body lines, because they’re sharp! Pick up a copy of issue 16 of Gasoline from all good newsagents – and probably some bad ones, too.

CLICK HERE or on the thumbnails below to view and download six FREE desktop wallpaper images of the Mustang! Photography fans will find our EXIF data on each image as well as our lighting information. Enjoy!

Stoked to catch a glimpse of the cover of the upcoming issue of Gasoline magazine, featuring two of our photoshoots: Kurt Davis’ GTS Holden Monaro and the incredible Eleanor-styled Mustang pictured below.

The magazine goes on sale October 31. We’ll bring you some more pics of the cars after that date. For now, bask in the glory that is the front cover!